Posted by johnebgood
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jun 29, 2014 at 12:49 am

Some crime was alleged when two consentimng adults make an agreement? lets see, unlike banks and morttgage co's, a woman actually owns the property and temporarily renting to a willing buyer in a mutually bebeficial transaction. They advertise, we're in the 21st century, get over it. So why is this guy locked up? who didn't he pay off?

johnebgood: do you understand the definition of being "pimped out"? That is usually against the woman's will. Threats, injuries, and drugs are usually involved. Some of these women have been kidnapped from other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe.

Posted by Concerned About Sex Worker Safety
a resident of another community
on Jun 30, 2014 at 11:38 am

I've been following that site for years and I've never seen any hint of child exploitation or trafficking either in the ads or the forums.

In the forums if there was any hint that a "provider" was being pimped people would be very angry and stay clear. If for no other reason than self-preservation this kind of behavior was not at all accepted or condoned.

What the site did provide was for several ways for these women to protect themselves, both by communicating with each other on a private forum about customers (providing references for good customers and blacklisting bad) as well as means to communicate with potential customers to get a sense of whether they were likely to be dangerous or safe to take.

These women in general are on the margins of being able to survive economically. This police action, which in my opinion was completely politically motivated, will not cause them to go find other jobs: they are unable to find other jobs to provide for their own support or that of their children (yes, most are single mothers), or they would have done that already. Instead, it will cause them to take far greater risks and to lower their prices causing them to have to find even more customers.

If the police really wanted to help exploited women it would have left the site open and used it to identify those small minority who were pimped or trafficked and arrested the pimps or traffickers, rather than endangering the vast majority of women on the site who were using it to help protect themselves in a risky profession which, due to their economic circumstances, they determined to be their best choice to support themselves.

Posted by Hmmm
a resident of East Palo Alto
on Jun 30, 2014 at 1:31 pmHmmm is a registered user.

One the revenuers get involved, it's all over. Pimping doesn't have to mean trafficking, or forcing women on to the street. Pimping can be facilitating prostitution. And organized prostitution, heck, even individual prostitution, leads to the prostitute and/or "handler" - be they pimp or madame - to launder profits and commit tax fraud. That's where they get into big trouble.

I agree with you, Concerned, and I know that most of these women are marginalized. Bu the authorities don't care, especially when the IRS is involved.